研究項目

健康觀念在全球範圍內日益受到重視，尤其在新冠疫情的背景下，不同年齡群體的差異化視角對公共衛生策略產生了顯著影響。在香港，老年人普遍青睞的中醫強調自然療法與生活方式的平衡；而青年群體則更傾向于西方健康實踐，主張積極活躍的生活方式與定期體檢。這些分歧還延伸至疾病管理與公共衛生行為，如對佩戴口罩的態度。 本研究聚焦香港15-25歲與65歲以上兩個關鍵年齡組的健康觀念差異。通過探討代際與文化差異，我們旨在理解社會、歷史與技術語境的變遷如何影響健康信念。此類認識對於制定有針對性的公共衛生舉措與教育專案至關重要，以契合香港中西融匯的健康實踐特色。 我們將採用由香港教育大學開發的“用於收集線上語言資料的數位平臺”（DOLD），收集並分析上述年齡群體的個人健康敘事。參與者將分享其關於健康的經驗與觀點，這些內容將被轉化為文本資料，通過語料庫輔助話語分析法進行研究。分析將使用 AntConc 等工具開展關鍵字分析，並探索這些關鍵字在敘事中如何關聯健康認知。我們將運用強化的敘事分析框架，兼顧語料中敘事的形式與功能，並以混合方法對香港不同年齡群體的健康概念進行定量編碼與定性解讀，從而為更有效的健康傳播策略提供依據。 研究的量化部分將檢驗健康觀念差異與年齡、性別、教育水準等人口學因素之間的關聯。該方法不僅揭示健康觀念的語言框架，也凸顯影響不同生命階段健康觀的非語言因素。 通過採用建構主義取向，並聚焦香港青年與老年居民的獨特健康視角，本研究彌補了一個重要的研究空白。研究旨在加深對這些人群健康認知的理解，從而優化健康傳播策略、支撐政策制定，並提升香港多元文化環境中的健康教育成效。預期成果將提供有價值的見解，助力細化健康策略，以更好滿足不同群體的需要。

本項目根植於博物館面向包容和無障礙的巨變之中。每個展品標籤、語音描述、目錄、新聞稿和社交媒體貼文不再僅僅是文字，而是創造豐富個人體驗的媒介。香港的博物館已經接納這種變革的理念，但博物館文本創作者對於如何撰寫能夠引起多元觀眾共鳴的中英雙語文本仍存有疑惑。問題還包括缺少對有效的語言工具的瞭解和缺乏培訓材料以培養新一代博物館撰稿人。 這些實際問題與英語和中文應用語言學研究中的兩個缺陷有關：首先，在博物館語境下，對語言資源的研究幾乎未考慮觀眾接受度。其次，對包容的、無障礙的中文語言資源的關注極其有限。這些尚未解決的缺陷給本項目提供了研究機會和社會影響力，包括為香港的博物館提供包容和無障礙文本所需的語言工具和見解。 這項調查將專注於一種博物館文本體裁，即展品標籤，因其對參觀者的體驗至關重要。我們將進行一項接受度的研究，以了解多元觀眾的心理——是甚麼激發了他們的好奇心和參與度——透過調查揭示他們如何看待和接受英語和中文的展品標籤。隨後，一項語料庫輔助話語研究（CADS）將旨在確定與多元參觀者偏好相吻合的英語和中文語言資源。最終，接受度研究和CADS將使我們能夠確定哪些語言資源最適合觀眾偏好。我們還將支持中文語言在博物館中的有效使用，推進有關包容與無障礙的博物館文本的知識。 本項目的成果將包括一套多功能的培訓材料，具有各種益處。短期內，一系列定製的工作坊將提升香港博物館專業人員撰寫具有包容性的文本的技能。我們的合作夥伴將從寫作指南的改進中獲益，而大學教育者和學生將獲得增強寫作訓練資源。中期內，我們將透過在線課程與本地和國際博物館分享知識。由此帶來的整合包容策略將增強訪客的博物館體驗。最終，這將促使更廣泛的，語言更包容的社會轉變，從而使博物館參觀者和專業人員從中受益。

This project seeks to investigate the relationship between tongue movement and tone in speech production – two parts of articulation formerly considered independent from each other. We look at consonant-vowel coordination in Cantonese and Mandarin, two languages with respectively six and four lexical tones, under different tone and speech rate conditions. Both acoustic (formant) and articulatory (high temporal resolution ultrasound tongue imaging) data will be collected for analysis, followed by analysis-by-synthesis using VocalTractLab. Our findings will shed new lights on (i) our understanding of speech production, (ii) individual differences in articulatory control, and demonstrate (iii) the use of articulatory synthesis as a convenient tool for hypothesis-testing in articulation research.

Empirical corpus-based studies have demonstrated many positive outcomes in learners’ development of various language skills. However, frontline language teachers in primary and secondary schools are unfamiliar with corpus technology, mainly due to the lack of technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) training in corpus technology. To address this knowledge gap, we have recently developed a corpus-based language pedagogy (CBLP) that blends language pedagogy with corpus technology. This proposal aims to frame training in corpus technology for student teachers within the TPACK framework to foster CBLP for effective teaching using corpus technology. This research will also provide a theoretical model by investigating how student teachers in Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland receive TPACK training in corpus technology, and how this can influence their self-efficacies for independent language learning and teaching.

The number of people being diagnosed with autism is increasing globally. Healthcare professionals define and categorise autism as a type of mental disorder, and individuals with autism (IWAs) are often perceived as having disabilities. Thus, autism is generally medicalised as an illness. The news media plays a crucial role in shaping the public’s understanding of autism and IWAs. Prior research has suggested that the negative representation and medicalisation of autism in newspapers can cause IWAs to be stigmatised and their mental health to deteriorate.

Despite negative impacts brought by medicalisation, very little research has systematically examined the linguistic construction of the medicalisation in the press. Without this knowledge, we cannot understand whether and how autism and autistic identity is stigmatised in the discourse. Other research gaps are also identified. First, very little research has focused on the Chinese speaking region in which more than 10 million people have been diagnosed with autism. Second, nearly all of the previous studies have used content analyses to examine somewhat small news corpora. The language use in the news portrayal of autism has been overlooked. Moreover, the studies discussed the impacts of the news portrayal about autism without exploring the perceptions of IWAs.

Guided by a social constructionist perspective, the proposed study investigates the news representation of autism in Hong Kong with consideration of the perception of IWAs. Based on a self-compiled corpus containing more than 18000 news articles related to autism, the focal analysis will be a corpus-assisted discourse analysis that combines corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to examine how autism is portrayed and medicalised linguistically through the analyses of keywords, word frequency, collocates, N-grams and concordances. Diachronic analyses will be conducted to understand changes of the representations and medicalisation over time (2000-2022). Then semi-structured individual interviews will be conducted with IWAs to explore their perceptions of autism, their autistic identity and the news portrayal of autism. The results of the analyses will be compared empirically to discuss the potential impacts of the news on IWAs and generate implications.

The significance of this project is three-fold. First, it elucidates how portrayals of autism and the medicalisation of autism in Chinese newspapers operate and may stigmatise IWAs from a discourse-analytical perspective. Second, it enhances the public’s understanding of IWAs by eliciting and investigating their voices. Third, it provides practical implications for journalists, researchers, educators, healthcare practitioners, and lawmakers.